Nuclear Knits: Where knitting is the bomb!

This has been an interesting knit so far. Lots of pieces that get attached (after being blocked). I hope to have the sleeves done this week! Front is done, back is done and the sleeves are left before picking up a whole mess of stitches for the skirt!

I had a customer ask for some yarn that is Tiffany Blue. It took me nearly a hour to get the perfect color.

Guess what I finished - yep - the top of the Leafy Quilt. It took me most of the weekend to assemble but I'm in love with how it finished. I started it in 2002 and finished it in 2011 (how crazy is that?) I could have finished it much faster if I only made an effort to do it. It came out Queen size and will be just the perfect gift once it is finished. This will go to the quilters in a few weeks and then I'll just have to do the binding!

Remember this roving? Well Anne had another 4oz which I bought off of her. Here is what the next 4oz came out like. Do you remember what the first 4 oz looked like? Details: Well first off this is Corriedale Roving from Funky Carolina. Both are finished at sport weight. The first one was 336 yards and this one came out 294 yards (so the "sportness" of them is slightly different). You can also see that the new skein has more yellow in it than the first. When I split the second 4oz I tried to get longer strands of colors (so that it looked a bit brighter than the first). With a total of 630 yards of sport weight now the question is do I finish my devilish plan and design a vest - or do I do something easy and pick a pattern off of Ravelry. Thoughts??

A good blogger buddy of mine is having a cool giveaway. You should really go check it out! What she is giving away is this cool software that helps you take images and make them usable for quilts. Any quilters dream really! Stop over and enter!

In cleaning out stash projects that are kits I thought I might knit up this sweater (which I bought everything for a year or more ago). I did a gauge swatch and found that on size 10.5, 10, 9 I got close (but closest on size 9). The gauge is 4.25 sts/inch. So, I cast on the 80 stitches and start working. I get an inch and a half in and decide to check the gauge again. It is now 3 sts/inch. Have you ever had this happen? WTF is wrong with the mini swatch I did??

Well I noticed that I have NOTHING on the needles. How crazy is that? I pulled out this kit from an old club I was in. Kits are sometimes the best because I don't have to think about anything - just grab, do a gauge swatch and then knit away. The yarn is very very interesting feeling and thin. This pair of socks has 80 stitches cast on (if you can believe that). Anyway - working through the stash and old kits is a good thing - right?

Project Details: This was a kit I bought from Knit Pixie years ago. I figured maybe I should finish it before summer was over. It is currently blocking - and I think the neckline will lay down better once it is blocked. The yarn is Organic Cotton From Blue Sky Alpaca and it was knit on size 9 needles. I wish I had done it in the round instead of flat (but I didn't feel like trying to figure out the changes that were needed). I started on July 23 and finished today, August 14th. I had to frog nearly 5 inches yesterday - so I would say this is a very fast knit. I'll have to see how it fits after it is blocked, but I think I'll really like it.

Are you tired of hearing about the leaf quilt? Well tonight I pushed through and got the rest of the blocks pieced. Now to iron and lay out!

Well I'm not sure how you feel, but when you sell crafts sometimes crafting feels more like work than fun. I have a craft fair next weekend and in getting ready I feel a little bit done on the crafting front - but the leaf quilt sits and stares at me. I decided to jump in. Finish up the leaf block (which I did), but then I counted them. There are suppose to be 80 8 inch blocks. There are, sad to say, 69 of them. So I cut out some more fabric and now need to sew more. Fingers crossed!

Project Details: Leafy Mitts by Ruth Stewart. Super fast knit and lovely. I used Elsebeth Lavold Angora (1 skein). Size 6 needles. I started on August 2nd and finished on August 5th. These are for a swap and I think she will love them!

CleoShawlFrog a video by RocketGirl* on Flickr. Well it is official. The Cleo shawl (which I was planning for a fall birthday present) has been frogged and will NOT be re-started. The whole thing is liberating really. The frogging process was a major pain in the butt - but now that it is done and I'm free to get my knit on something else ... I feel great!